November 10. Sunday.

Accordingly at 8 this Morning I went and waited on the Comte. He asked me, how We
went on with the English? I told him We divided upon two Points the Tories and Penobscot,
two ostensible Points, for it was impossible to believe that My Lord Shelburne or
the Nation cared much about such Points. I took out of my Pocket and shewed him the
Record of Governour Pownals solemn Act of burying a Leaden Plate with this Inscription,
May 23. 1759. Province of Massachusetts Bay. Penobscot. Dominions of Great Britain.
Possession confirmed by Thomas Pownal Governor.

This was planted on the East Side of the River of Penobscot, 3 miles above Marine
Navigation. I shew him also all the other Records —the Laying out of Mount Desert,
Machias and all the other Towns to the East of the River Penobscot, and told him that
the Grant of Nova Scotia by James the first to Sir William Alexander, bounded it on
the River St. Croix. And that I was possessed of the Authorities of four of the greatest
Governors the King of England ever had, Shirley, Pownal, Bernard and Hutchinson, in
favour of our Claim and of Learned Writings of Shirley and Hutchinson in support of
it. —The Comte said that Mr. Fitzherbert told him they wanted it for the Masts: but
the C. said that Canada had an immense quantity. I told him I thought there were few
Masts there, but that I fancied it was not Masts but Tories that again made the Difficulty.
Some of them claimed Lands in that Territory and others hoped for Grants there.1

The Comte said it was not astonishing that the British Ministry should insist upon
Compensation to them, For that all the Precedents were in favour of it. That there
had been no Example of an Affair like this terminated by a Treaty, without reestablishing
those who had adhered to the old Government in all their Possessions. I begged his
Pardon in this, and said that in Ireland at least their had been a Multitude of Confiscations
without Restitution.—Here We ran into some Conversation concerning Ireland, &c. Mr.
Rayneval, who was present talked about the national honour and the obligation they
were under to support their Adherents.—Here I thought I might indulge a { 49 } little more Latitude of Expression, than I had done with Oswald and Stratchey, and
I answered, if the Nation thought itself bound in honour to compensate those People
it might easily do it, for it cost the Nation more Money to carry on this War, one
Month, than it would cost it to compensate them all. But I could not comprehend this
Doctrine of national honour. Those People by their Misrepresentations, had deceived
the Nation, who had followed the Impulsion of their devouring Ambition, untill it
had brought an indelible Stain on the British Name, and almost irretrievable Ruin
on the Nation, and now that very Nation was thought to be bound in honour to compensate
its Dishonourers and Destroyers. Rayneval said it was very true.

The Comte invited me to dine. I accepted. When I came I found the M. de la Fayette
in Conference with him. When they came out the M. took me aside and told me he had
been talking with the C. upon the Affair of Money. He had represented to him, Mr.
Morris's Arguments and the Things I had said to him, as from himself &c. That he feared
the Arts of the English, that our Army would disbande, and our Governments relax &c.
That the C. feared many difficulties. That France had expended two hundred and fifty
Millions in this War &c. That he talked of allowing six millions and my going to Holland
with the Scheme I had projected, and having the Kings Warranty &c. to get the rest.
That he had already spoken to some of Mr. De Fleury's Friends and intended to speak
to him &c.

We went up to Dinner. I went up with the C. alone. He shewed me into the Room where
were the Ladies and the Company. I singled out the Comtesse and went up to her, to
make her my Compliment. The Comtess and all the Ladies rose up, I made my Respects
to them all and turned round and bowed to the reste of the Company. The Comte who
came in after me, made his Bows to the Ladies and to the Comtesse last. When he came
to her, he turned round and called out Monsieur Adams venez ici. Voila la Comtesse
de Vergennes. A Nobleman in Company said Mr. Adams has already made his Court to Madame
la Comtess. I went up again however and spoke again to the Comtess and she to me.—When
Dinner was served, the Comte led Madame de Montmorin, and left me to conduct the Comtesse
who gave me her hand with extraordinary Condescention, and I conducted her to Table.
She made me sit next her on her right hand and was remarkably attentive to me the
whole Time. The Comte who sat opposite was constantly calling out to me, to know what
I would eat and to offer me petits Gateaux, Claret and Madeira &c. &c.—In { 50 } short I was never treated with half the Respect at Versailles in my Life.

In the Antichamber before Dinner some French Gentlemen came to me, and said they had
seen me two Years ago. Said that I had shewn in Holland that the Americans understand
Negotiation, as well as War.

Compliments are the Study of this People and there is no other so ingenious at them.2

1. JA was well prepared for his call on the French minister of foreign affairs. The documents
he carried with him or was prepared to show when wanted were attested copies of the
Massachusetts charters and attested extracts from the records of the General Court
relative to the boundaries of Massachusetts. These had been made at JA's request by the clerk of the General Court when JA had sailed for Europe late in 1779 as sole commissioner to treat for peace with Great
Britain; they survive in the JA Miscellany (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 191). In four long communications to the Boston Patriot, 23, 26 Oct., 6, 9 Nov. 1811, JA later told how they proved useful in establishing the northeastern boundary of the
United States in the preliminary negotiations of 1782; these letters are partly reprinted
in an appendix to JA's Works, 1:665–669.

2. The several foregoing paragraphs were clearly those that evoked amusement at JA's expense when his “Peace Journal” was read in Congress in 1783; see note on entry of 2 Nov., above. Alexander Hamilton was a delegate to Congress at the time, and in 1800, when assembling all the evidence
he could gather to discredit JA as a Federalist candidate for the Presidency, he cited the “Peace Journal” as proof
of JA's boundless vanity and jealousy.

“The reading of this Journal [Hamilton went on], extremely embarrassed his friends,
especially the delegates of Massachusetts; who, more than once, interrupted it, and
at last, succeeded in putting a stop to it, on the suggestion that it bore the marks
of a private and confidential paper, which, by some mistake, had gotten into its present
situation, and never could have been designed as a public document for the inspection
of Congress. The good humor of that body yielded to the suggestion” (Letter from Alexander Hamilton, concerning the Public Conduct and Character of John
Adams, Esq., President of the United States, N.Y., 1800, p. 7–8).

JA's reply to this passage in Hamilton's tract is in a letter published in the Boston Patriot, 4, 7 Sept. 1811.

It is worth noting that when Jared Sparks printed the “Peace Journal” from the Papers
of the Continental Congress he silently omitted the whole paragraph recording the
French comparison of JA { 51 } with Washington, thus cutting the ground from under Hamilton's charge (Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Boston, 1829–1830, 6:471). It may also be worth noting that Matthew Ridley reported in his Diary (MHi), 10 Nov. 1782, that “Some time ago he [JA] was told that Mr. Washington was the greatest General in the World and that he Mr.
A. was the General Washington in politics. —All this makes no Impression on him.”